1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to recording medium loading devices, and more particularly a recording medium loading device for conveying a recording medium, or a disk, between a loaded position and an ejected position.
2. Description of the Related Art
A 12 or 18 cm compact disk from which recorded data is reproduced by means of a laser pickup, for instance, has been employed as a storage medium for storing information such as a database or software. Therefore, a disk unit to be housed in a chassis, or a housing, (a built-in-type CD-ROM drive) has been developed so as to be incorporated into a downsized notebook computer. Further, the disk unit includes a recording medium loading device for conveying the disk between a loaded position in which the disk has data reproduced therefrom and an ejected position in which the disk is placed on or removed from the recording medium loading device.
A recording medium loading device included in a conventional disk unit has its tray on which a disk is placed driven by a motor. When the tray moves outside a chassis, a disk is placed on a turntable in the tray. Then, the tray is moved back again into the chassis by the driving force of the motor.
However, such a tray-driving method as described above requires a motor for driving the tray and a transmission mechanism for transmitting a driving force to the tray. This makes it difficult to produce a smaller and thinner disk unit, thus preventing the disk unit from being incorporated into the housing of a notebook computer.
Further, the above-described recording medium loading device has the entire disk positioned in a disk placement portion formed in the tray. The disk placement portion is a circular concave portion with a bottom. Therefore, the tray is designed to have a width wider than the diameter of the disk. As a result, in the conventional disk unit, the tray has a large dimension in width so that the entire disk unit becomes large in size, thus making it difficult to downsize the conventional disk unit.
Therefore, there has been developed a disk unit including a recording medium loading device that dispenses with the above-described motor and transmission mechanism and has a tray moved manually into a disk loading or housing position inside a chassis or out to a disk ejection position outside the chassis.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a disk unit 100 of this type. The disk unit 100 has a recording medium loading device that includes a tray 102 on which a disk (not shown) is placed and a chassis 110 movably holding the tray 102. The tray 102 has its one side portion cut off so that a part of the disk protrudes from the tray 102.
Specifically, the tray 102 is guided by a guide rail mechanism 104 so that the disk is movable with respect to the chassis 110 between an ejected position and a housed position. Here, the ejected position refers to a position of the tray 102 in which position the disk is placed on or removed from the tray 102, and the housed position refers to a position of the tray 102 in which position the tray 102 is housed in a housing part 103 of the chassis 110.
The chassis 110 includes a cover part 110a that covers the protruding part of the disk when the tray 102 is in the housed position. This structure allows the tray 102 to have a smaller dimension in width, thus realizing a smaller disk unit.
An optical pickup 105 and a turntable 106 are provided in the tray 102. Therefore, a printed board 102 provided in the chassis 110 and including a variety of electronic components for data reproduction are electrically connected with the optical pickup 105 and the turntable 106 by an FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) 109.
Here, if the disk is easily moved when the tray 102 is in the housed position for data reproduction, this prevents good data reproduction. Therefore, the recording medium loading device includes a lock mechanism for locking the movement of the tray 102 in the housed position.
This lock mechanism includes a lock arm 107, a solenoid 108, an eject switch 117, and a lock pin 119. The lock arm 107 is attached rotatably to the chassis 110 and includes a lock claw 107a and a connection part 107b. The lock claw 107a engages the lock pin 119 provided on the tray 102, and the connection part 107b is connected with the solenoid 108.
When the tray 102 is moved in the X2 direction of FIG. 1 to the housed position, the lock claw 107a engages the lock pin 119 to lock the movement of the tray 102. In this locked state, the tray 102 engages a position sensor 125 provided on the printed board 122. Thereby, it is sensed that the tray 102 reaches the housed position. Further, when the tray 102 is in the housed position, a coil spring 126 provided in the chassis 110 is pressed by the tray 102 to be in a compressed state.
On the other hand, in order to move the tray 102 from the housed position to the ejected position, a switch button 112 provided in the tray 102 is operated. This switch button 112 is provided in a buttonhole 113 formed in a front bezel 111 of the tray 102. The eject switch 117 is provided in a position opposing the switch button 112 in the tray 102.
The eject switch 117 is fixed to an FPC 118 provided in the tray 102, and is switched ON by pressing the switch button 112. This eject switch 117 is connected to the printed board 122 via the FPC 118 and the FPC 109 electrically connecting the chassis 110 and the tray 102.
As previously described, the solenoid 108 is mechanically connected via the connection part 107b to the lock arm 107, and is electrically connected via the FPC 109 to the printed board 122. When the switch button 112 is switched ON, a controller (not shown) mounted on the printed board 122 switches a solenoid-driving transistor (not shown) ON so that the solenoid 108 turns the lock arm 107 in the clockwise direction of FIG. 1.
Therefore, by switching the switch button 112 ON, the lock arm 107 is turned to disengage the lock claw 107a from the lock pin 119. Thereby, a lock set on the tray 102 by the lock arm 107 is released to set the tray 102 movable in the X1 direction of FIG. 1.
Since the tray 102 in the housed position compresses the coil spring 126 as previously described, the tray 102 is pressed out in the X1 direction by the elastic restoring force of the coil spring 126 when the lock on the tray 102 is released. As a result, a part of the tray 102 protrudes from the chassis 110. An operator holds the protruding part of the tray 102 to pull out the tray 102 to the ejected position. Thereby, the tray 102 reaches the ejected position.
An LED (Light-Emitting Diode) 114 is provided to the side of the switch button 112. When the disk unit 100 is in operation, the LED 114 emits light to inform the operator that the disk unit 100 is in operation. For this purpose, the front bezel 111 has an LED hole 115 formed therein so that the LED 114 is provided in the LED hole 115. The LED 114 is provided on the FPC 118 to be connected via the FPCs 118 and 109 to the printed board 122.
As described above, in the conventional recording medium loading device, the eject switch 117 is switched ON by operating the switch button 112 so that the solenoid 108 is actuated to release the lock on the tray 102. That is, the conventional recording medium loading device releases the lock on the tray 102 by an electrical means.
However, if the lock on the tray 102 is released only by the electrical means, the tray 102 cannot be unlocked and consequently, the disk cannot be extracted from the disk unit 100 if the FPCs 109 and 118, for instance, become defective to prevent the actuation of the solenoid 108 (hereinafter, such a state is referred to as an emergency state). Therefore, the conventional recording medium loading device includes an emergency lock release mechanism so that the lock set on the tray 102 by the lock arm 107 can be released even in the emergency state.
The emergency lock release mechanism includes an emergency rod 120 and an emergency lever 123. The emergency rod 120 is a rod-like member and is provided in the tray 102 to be movable in the X1 and X2 directions of FIG. 1. The emergency rod 120 has one end part thereof in the X1 direction opposed to an ejecting operation hole 121 formed in the front bezel 111.
The emergency lever 123 is a center-bent rod-like member and is rotatably supported by a spindle 124 provided upright in the chassis 110. When the tray 102 is locked in the housed position, the emergency lever 123 has an end part 123a thereof opposed to the other end part of the emergency rod 120 in the X2 direction of FIG. 1. The emergency lever 123 has the other end 123b thereof connected to the connection part 107b of the lock arm 107.
The emergency lock release mechanism of the above-described structure serves to release the lock set on the tray 102 by the lock arm 107 if the recording medium loading device enters the emergency state. That is, if the recording medium loading device enters the emergency state, the operator inserts a thin rod-like member into the ejecting operation hole 121 to move the emergency rod 120 in the X2 direction of FIG. 1.
As previously described, the emergency rod 120 has its X2 end part opposed to the end part 123a of the emergency lever 123. Therefore, the emergency rod 120 is moved in the X2 direction of FIG. 1 to turn the emergency lever 123 in the counterclockwise direction of FIG. 1 on the spindle 124.
Thus, the emergency lever 123 is turned so that the end part 123b presses the connection part 107b of the lock arm 107. Consequently, the lock arm 107 is turned in the clockwise direction of FIG. 1 by the manual operation of the operator to disengage the lock claw 107a from the lock pin 119. Thereby, the lock set on the tray 102 by the lock arm 107 can be manually released.
However, in the above-described conventional recording medium loading device, the solenoid 108 is electrically actuated by operating the eject switch 117 so as to release the lock set on the tray 102 by the lock arm 107. Therefore, the conventional recording medium loading device requires the emergency rod 120 and the emergency lever 123, that is, the emergency lock release mechanism, in case electronic components such as the eject switch 117, the solenoid 108, and the FPCs 109 and 118 should become defective, that is, in case of the emergency state. However, this complicates the structure of the recording medium loading device, thus causing problems such as increases in the number of components, a device size, and production costs.
Further, the conventional recording medium loading device has the problem of a low electrostatic characteristic due to the close arrangement of the front bezel 111 and the eject switch 117. That is, arranging the eject switch 117 adjacently to the front bezel 111 generates static electrical discharge between the operator and the eject switch 117 when the operator operates the switch button 112, for instance. As a result, the eject switch 117 and other electronic components (such as electronic components mounted on the printed board 122) connected via the FPCs 118 and 109 to the eject switch 117 may be broken by static electricity.
The static electrical discharge is apt to occur particularly because the front bezel 111 contains a number of holes such as the buttonhole 113 for accommodating the switch button 112 and the ejecting operation hole 121 for operating the emergency rod 120.
Further, the conventional recording medium loading device has the LED 114 provided in the front bezel 111. Therefore, the interconnection lines of the LED 114 should be long enough to run from the printed board 122 to the front bezel 111 via the FPCs 109 and 118. This requires the recording medium loading device to employ the FPCs 109 and 118 each made costly for the increased number of the interconnection lines.
Moreover, since a driving circuit for the LED 114 is formed on the printed board 122, a long distance between the printed board 122 and the LED 114 causes the attenuation of an LED driving current in each of the FPCs 109 and 118. Therefore, the driving circuit for the LED 114 has to supply a high current to the LED 114 for this attenuation, thus resulting in an increase in current consumption.
Furthermore, since the LED 114 serving as a light-emitting means is provided in the front bezel 111, static electrical discharge is generated between the operator and the LED 114 through the LED hole 115 when the operator operates the front bezel 111 or the switch button 112. This may lead to the breakage of electronic components provided in the disk unit 100.
In addition, as described above, the conventional recording medium loading device includes the emergency lock release mechanism including the emergency rod 120 and the emergency lever 123 for the emergency state. However, this complicates the structure of the conventional recording medium loading device, thus causing the problems of increases in the number of components, the size, and the production costs of the recording medium loading device.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a recording medium loading device in which the above-described disadvantages are eliminated.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a downsized recording medium loading device of a simple structure which device can prevent static electricity from damaging its electronic components.
The above objects of the present invention are achieved by a recording medium loading device including: a chassis; a movable unit for holding a recording medium, the movable unit being movable between a housed position in which the movable unit is housed in the chassis and an ejected position to which the movable unit is ejected from the chassis; and a lock unit including: a lock member movable between a locking position to lock the movable unit in the housed position and an unlocking position to unlock the movable unit; and an operation member including an operation part and an engaging part engaging the lock member, the operation part being manually operated to move the operation member so that the operation member moves the lock member from the locking position to the unlocking position by applying force to the lock member through the engaging part.
According to the above-described recording medium loading device, the lock set by the lock mechanism on the movable unit in the housed position can be released by manually operating the operation part of the operation member. Therefore, a conventional electric eject switch can be dispensed with, thereby increasing the resistance of the recording medium loading device to static electricity so that the electronic components of the recording medium loading device are prevented from being damaged by static electrical discharge that would occur between an operator and the eject switch.
Further, along with the electric eject switch, connectors and interconnection lines electrically connecting a printed board provided in the chassis and the eject switch provided in the movable unit also become unnecessary. Therefore, the recording medium loading device can reduce the number of its components and individual defects of the wiring parts, thereby increasing the reliability of the recording medium loading device.
Furthermore, an emergency rod and an emergency lever, which are provided in case of a failure of the eject switch, can be dispensed with. This also reduces the number of the components of the recording medium loading device.
In addition, an emergency hole formed in a front bezel of the movable unit for operating the emergency lever can be dispensed with, thereby preventing static electricity from being discharged via the emergency hole into the recording medium loading device.
The above objects of the present invention are also achieved by a recording medium loading device including: a chassis; a movable unit for holding a recording medium, the movable unit being movable between a housed position in which the movable unit is housed in the chassis and an ejected position to which the movable unit is ejected from the chassis; a light-emitting part provided in the chassis; and a light-displaying member letting light traveling therethrough and provided in the movable unit, the light-displaying member including a light-receiving part opposing the light-emitting part to receive light emitted therefrom when the movable unit is in the housed position and a display part displaying the light received by the light-receiving part so that the light is visually recognizable from outside the movable unit.
According to the above-described recording medium loading device, the light-emitting part is provided in the chassis so that the number of interconnection lines electrically connecting the chassis and the movable unit can be reduced. Therefore, the production costs of the recording medium loading device can be reduced. Further, interconnection lines for the light-emitting part can be allocated to other signals, thus improving the signal-to-noise ratios of the signals.
Moreover, in a conventional recording medium loading device having an LED provided in a front side of the movable unit, static electrical discharge occurs between the LED and an operator, which may lead to breakage of the electronic components of a disk unit. However, according to the above-described recording medium loading device, the light-emitting part is provided in the chassis. This prevents static electrical discharge from occurring between the operator and the light-emitting part, thereby preventing the static electrical discharge from damaging the electronic components of the disk unit.
Additionally, the above-described recording medium loading device may include a lock unit including a lock member movable between a locking position to lock the movable unit in the housed position and an unlocking position to unlock the movable unit, and the above-described light-displaying member may be movable between first and second positions, the light-displaying member applying force to the lock member so as to move the lock member from the locking position to the unlocking position by moving from the first position to the second position.
According to such a recording medium loading device, since the light-displaying member forms a part of the lock unit, the light-displaying member has a function of locking and unlocking the movable unit as well as a function of displaying light. This reduces the number of the components, simplifies the structure, and decreases the size of the recording medium loading device.
The above objects of the present invention are further achieved by a recording medium loading device including: a chassis; a movable unit for holding a recording medium, the movable unit being movable between a housed position in which the movable unit is housed in the chassis and an ejected position to which the movable unit is ejected from the chassis; an operation member movable with respect to the movable unit and manually operated to move from a first position to a second position; a detection part provided in the chassis and detecting at least a movement of the operation member from the first position to the second position by detecting the operation member; and a lock release part releasing a lock set on the movable unit by the lock unit based on a detection result provided by the detection part.
According to the above-described recording medium loading device, the detection part detects the movement of the manually operated operation member and, based on the detection result provided by the detection part, the lock release part releases the lock set on the movable unit by the lock unit. Therefore, it is no more necessary to provide an electric switch in the movable unit, thus increasing the resistance of the recording medium loading device to static electricity.
Further, since the detection part detecting the movement of the operation member is provided in the chassis, there is a distance between an operator and the detection part at a time of a lock release operation. Therefore, static electrical discharge is prevented from occurring between the operator and the detection part, thereby preventing the electronic components of the recording medium loading device from being damaged.
Additionally, the detection part may include a single detection switch that detects at least a first state in which the operation member is in the first position and a second state in which the operation member is in the second position.
According to such a recording medium loading device, the first and second states of the operation member can be detected by the single detection switch, thus reducing the number of components and production costs compared with a device employing different switches to detect the first and second states.